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Practically everyday you can read about promises in regards to health, food, and medicine. There are products that promise to stop the effects of aging, foods that promise a 6-pack, and promises for some exotic fruit elixir to cure diseases. It can drive you crazy (like it does me) or drain your bank account. I am tired of the panaceas promised and wish I would have collected all the “panaceas” I have seen throughout my 33 years in the field of nutrition and opened a museum called Really?

Yesterday the news reported a new study that says “sugar causes heart disease.” Really? You have to do a study for this? Does anyone think anymore? Anything eaten in excess is going to be bad for you. It is a principle given to us by Almighty God, who also choreographs the molecular dance in our body along with the food we eat. He is the master dietitian.

Did you know eating too many carrots will turn you orange? Too much water can kill you? A plethora of celery can cause bezoars? Excess sugar will eat away at your vessels? People do not want to practice moderation. They want a pill, the panacea to cure their ills so they don’t have to work hard. Here is the news flash. Taking care of yourself, others and eating moderately takes effort. It is hard when very part of our brain screams for food and food is plentiful, but worth the effort.

Quote of the day:

“People who are diagnosed with a problem or disease and are not willing to follow advice and cease their injurious habits have it backwards. Consequently, they seek miracles of healing”. – Adolphus Hohensee

There are many techniques we can use to prevent us from eating foods or beverages that may harm us. One is called the revulsion technique. This is when you imagine a food or beverage in a negative connotation, or a disgusting picture. In New York City, a friend of mine told me a billboard pictured of a bottle of soda pop pouring out the liquid soda and then it turned into yellow fat. It looked horrible. The picture was saying, that too much sugar can turn into fat (triglycerides) in your body. Very repulsive.

Another repulsive example has to do with comparing flour tortillas to wall paper paste or glue. For those of you who remember making paper mache masks, you mixed flour and water to make glue, dipped newspaper strips in the mixture and pasted it on a balloon to harden. Tortillas are basically made of flour and water. If you let them sit too long with dressing or salsa, you will notice the tortilla turns into sticky glue-like substance. Imagine that sticky glue in your arteries. I try to avoid flour tortillas and choose corn tortillas instead.

I often use plastic food models when teaching. In one of my classes, a man stood up, and gathered the plastic mashed potatoes, bread, hamburger bun, and pasta. He held them up, looked intently at them and said “You are poison for me”. He dropped them and as they fell to the table, they bounced all over and startled the other participants in the class. At the next class, several people commented on how the man’s demonstration affected them, and they stopped eating foods that were not helpful for their blood sugars.